BACKGROUND: The Swedish ambulance service has undergone major changes in recent decades due to advancements being made in medical and technical resources, professional competence, and patient care. Registered and specialist nurses share the same role, accountabilities, and responsibilities in the ambulance service, and their professional competence has not yet been evaluated.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to investigate and compare self-reported professional competence among nurses working in the ambulance service and to explore associations between potentially predictive background factors and self-reported professional competence.

METHOD: A cross-sectional study with a digital questionnaire was used for collecting data from 34 registered nurses and 71 specialist nurses. The Ambulance Nurse Competence Scale and the Research Utilization Questionnaire were used for data collection.

RESULTS: Significant differences were found among the nursing categories in terms of age, gender, education, and work experience. Prehospital emergency nurses reported the highest professional competence. Nurses with a master's degree did not report significantly higher professional competence than nurses with a bachelor's degree.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicated that there are differences in the professional competence of registered nurses and specialist nurses. Length of work experience in the ambulance service is an important factor associated with higher professional competence.